Three point lift of an I-74 arch segment

(Satellite, the new bridges have yet to be captured as of Sep 2020)

I've been recording construction photos of the new I-74 bridges across the Mississippi River. Lately, I've just been saving the links because the construction has been well documented by the I-74 River Bridge Page. But a comment on the following post provided some information that makes it worth featuring with these notes.

I-74 River Bridge posted three photos with the comment: "We’re making progress on the Illinois-bound arch! Another segment has been installed this morning. At the top of these two segments are the stay cable connections."

Ben Stalvey shared

Well the MLC 650 makes this job look easy.

Mark Gallik

Excellent 3 point lift! What are the yellow parts in the load path? We commonly used chainfalls for adjustable rigging, but I'd imagine you can't buy one for that weight. Steamboat jacks?

1

2

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Before discussing Mark's comment about a 3 point lift, let me note a couple of observations. First of all, with that much boom, imagine how stable the barge has to be so that the load doesn't "wobble." That would explain why the barge has four spud bars. Normally, I see only two. I wonder if those bars can partially lift the barge out of the water.

Secondly, note how small the workers are. We can see some at the bottom of the first photo on the barge and others on the work scaffold at the joint in the first and third photos.

At first I was confused about "3 point" because I saw four connections. But in this closeup of the second photo we can see that the cable from one side of the top connections goes through a pulley to the connection on the other side. That pulley turns two degrees of control into one. Specifically, that leg of the rigging controls the height, but not the rotation, of the segment. The other two legs control the rotation as well as the height. Note that two out of the three legs have a yellow thingy. As explained below, those yellow things are hydraulic rams that control the length of the leg. So I think the riggers will align the far upper corner of the segment first and then adjust the left leg to align the near upper corner and then lower the right leg to close the gap at the bottom of the segments.

Photo 2, zoomed

The new software for Facebook and Google blogging makes it a real pain in the neck (and shoulders, I spend too much time at the keyboard) for formatting comments. So I'm going to go with a screenshot.

Jordan Ent replied to Mark's comment
Enerpac Hydraulic turnbuckles. We stock them at our PA branch.
Enerpac has made these to conform to ASME standards. There are several safety features built in that will engage/lock the load if/or in the event the hydraulic system fails. Enerpac has engineered an amazing system.

I checked out the Enerpac web site. At first, I found just catalog items such as heavy lift rams...

Heavy Lift

...and smaller "nudging" rams.

Cylinders

But then I found some of their custom work.

Custom
One of three custom SyncHoist cylinders used to place a 1,140 ton nuclear plant module

2004 Millau Viaduct in France

(Satellite)

The tallest bridge in the world.

Photo

Catherine Center

Millau viaduct across the Tarn valley - tallest bridge in the world.

Bhai Tugal Panabal posted
The Millau Viaduct, France
Highway Engineering Discoveries posted
The Millau Viaduct, France
Wonderful Engineering Discoveries posted
The Millau Viaduct In France

Klaus Merinitty commented on the Wonderful Engineering Discoveries' post

Sylwia Kokoszka commented on Discovery's post
Delightful every time! 

 

Interesting Engineering posted

🌉 The Millau Viaduct, completed in 2004, soars 336.4 meters above the Tarn Valley in Southern France, making it the world's tallest bridge. Designed by engineer Michel Virlogeux and architect Norman Foster, this engineering marvel offers breathtaking views and showcases modern design at its finest. 

📸 iStock/Allard1

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted
Millau Viaduct Construction

 

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted

This is how they are building the highest bridge in Europe. The Millau Viaduct.

Jody Williams: Built It was completed in 2004

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted

Millau Viaduct, France

Ćerim Miftari commented on the above post, cropped

Francois Roque, Nov 2016, cropped

 

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted
France
David Miller: Millau Viaduct by engineer Michel Virlogeux and architect Norman Foster. I'm always surprised when an engineer and an architect collaborate: E.g., Owen Williams and Maxwell Ayrton's concrete bridges on the A9 Great North Road in Scotland.

 

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted

Viaduc de Millau

Cable-stayed bridge in Creissels, France

Construction was from 2001 to 2004. It finished 25 days ahead of schedule.

(new window)  An animation of the construction

 

1935+1966 CSX/L&N Bridge over Red River in Adams, TN

(Bridge Hunter, has photos of 1966 wreck and rebuilding; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Street View

Jim caught a view of the piers. It looks like concrete extensions have been built on top of stone piers. I presume that the stone piers held up the original 1859 wooden trusses. Those trusses must have been unbelievably deep. It is hard to imagine them being strong enough to carry steam locomotives until 1935. Generally locomotives became heavy enough by the beginning of the 20th Century that spans built in the 1800s had to be replaced 2 to 4 decades before the 1930s.

Jim Pearson Photography posted
September 17, 2020 - CSXT 3411 and 3087 lead Q503 south across the bridge over the Red River as it heads south on the Henderson Subdivision at Adams, Tennessee.
Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 100.
[A comment indicates the lead unit is a Tier 4 GE and the second unit is an older GE.]

Jim Pearson Photography posted

First light, first train!

I was afraid I'd miss this loaded coal train CSX N302 at first light on the Red River bridge at Adams, Tennessee as it made its way south on the Henderson Subdivision.

I left my house at about 5:30am, much earlier than I'm accustomed to getting out, but I was meeting fellow railfan Cooper Smith at 7am at Guthrie, Kentucky and we were to meet at the CSX yard in Guthrie to do a full day of railfanning in the snow.

After stopping to shoot the sun popping over the horizon just north of Trenton, Ky I got back in my nice and toasty SUV after getting my shot in the cold 14 degree weather and headed on south to meet up with Cooper. It was about this time I found out that he was running late and that there was a loaded coal train just ahead of me headed south.

This was just after the last big snowfall that swept through the region the day before and even though the Kentucky and Tennessee road crews had do a great job of plowing US 41, which follows the Henderson Subdivision, there was still ice on the roads to contend with so I was worried that I wouldn't make it to this spot and get the drone up before the train got there, but as you can tell, lady luck was smiling in my direction!

I arrived at this spot probably about 10 minutes before the train on February 19th, 2021 and the sun was just above the tree line here and was sending that beautiful early morning golden light, raking across the bare trees. A great start to a great day of being trackside, even if it was real early and went till after dark! We both came back with some great shots!

#trainphotography #railroadphotography #trains #railways #dronephotography #jimpearsonphotography

Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone, RAW, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100.

Jim Pearson Photography

https://fineartamerica.com/.../first-light-and-first...

Jim Pearson Photography posted

Southbound W992-28 High and Wide Move over the Red River at Adams, Tennessee

When you’re running at 25 mph and only 5 mph through switches, it pretty much takes forever to get anywhere as with CSX W992-28 as it heads south across the Red River trestle at Adams, Tennessee on the CSX Henderson Subdivision with CSXT #9 leading on May 5th, 2021. It left Evansville, Indiana around midnight and ended up tying down at Courtland, TN where it covered 125 miles in about 12 hours.

Based on past moves this looks like another GE generator that is bound for Florida. Still trying to find out and will add it to the caption once I do.

This was an Emmert International train move with CSXT #9 as power and BBCX 1002 as the trailing manned caboose with what appeared to be a steam generator of some sort that was being hauled on their BBCX1000 Schnabel Railcar.

According to the Emmert International website: “Emmert International’s BBCX1000 Schnabel Railcar is specifically designed to carry heavy (up to 1 million pounds) and oversized loads in such a way that the load itself makes up part of the car. The load is suspended between the two ends of the cars by lifting arms; the lifting arms are connected to a pivot above an assembly of pivots and frames that carry the weight of the load and the lifting arm.

For loads not designed to be part of the car Emmert International’s BBCX1000 is equipped with a deck designed to carry the loads in standard configuration up to 836,000 pounds. Customized decks can be manufactured to increase the overall payload weight.

Emmert International’s BBCX1000 is equipped with hydraulic equipment that will either lift the load vertically or horizontally shift the load while in transit to clear obstructions along the cars route.

With 20 axles (ten for each half) containing four trucks connected by a complex system of span bolsters its tare (unloaded) weight without deck is 424,000 lbs. The BBCX1000’s empty car length is 115’ 10” with a maximum length with the loading deck at 168’ 9”. Maximum vertical load shifting ability is 14” and the maximum horizontal load shifting ability is 22”. The heavy-duty AAR railcar mechanical designation is ‘LS’.

Emmert Internationals BBCX1000 Schnabel Railcar is accompanied by the BBCX 1002 Caboose and BBCX1003 flat car that carries the deck when not in service.

The BBCX1000 is pulled by special train service and requires 2 operators who control the BBCX 1000 railcar ride in the caboose.

I’ll be posting a video on this move in a few days on my YouTube Channel and here on Facebook, once I get it edited.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2 Drone, RAW, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 200.

Jim Pearson Photography

https://fineartamerica.com/.../southbound-w992-high-and...

This bridge seems to be a favorite of railfans.

Frank Keller Photography posted
CSX 720 leads 2 units over the Red River in Adam’s TN.

Jim Pearson Photography posted

CSX Chesapeake & Ohio Heritage unit 1869 as it leads hot intermodal, CSX I026, across the Red River Bridge at Adam, Tennessee northbound on the Henderson Subdivision on February 27th, 2024.

According to the CSX Website: A locomotive commemorating the proud history of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway has entered service as the fifth in the CSX heritage series celebrating the lines that came together to form the modern railroad.

Numbered CSX 1869 in honor of the year the C&O was formed in Virginia from several smaller railroads, the newest heritage locomotive sports a custom paint design that includes today’s CSX colors on the front of the engine and transitions to a paint scheme inspired by 1960s era C&O locomotives on the rear two-thirds.

The C&O Railway was a major line among North American freight and passenger railroads for nearly a century before becoming part of the Chessie System in 1972 and eventually merging into the modern CSX. In 1970, the C&O included more than 5,000 route miles of track stretching from Newport News, Virginia, to Chicago and the Great Lakes.

Designed and painted at CSX�s locomotive shop in Waycross, Georgia, the C&O unit will join four other commemorative units in revenue service on CSX�s 20,000-mile rail network.

The heritage series is reinforcing employee pride in the history of the railroad that continues to move the nation’s economy with safe, reliable, and sustainable rail-based transportation services.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/240, ISO 170.

Paul Zawada: Also caught an Autonomous Track Assement Car (ATAC) in action - first car behind the locomotives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yvcrhL09pQ

The L&N had to build some interesting bridges over the Red River in the rolling hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. A trestle upstream and another downstream

BNSF/CB&Q and Road Bridges over the Missouri River at Rulo, NE

1887 CB&Q: (Bridge Hunter; HAER; Engineer's Report)
1977 BN: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)
1938 Turss: (Bridge Hunter)
2013 UCEB: (Satellite)  UCEB = Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridge

I'm used to seeing Whipple trusses on the C&NW. But this is the first one I remember seeing on the CB&Q.

HAER NEB,74-RULO,1--10

HAER NEB,74-RULO,1--8
[HAER also has several construction photos of the piers.]

Engineer's Report, p35

It looks like some of the piers go down to just blue clay. But they were good enough that the 1977 rebuild reused them.

Engineer's Report, p37

Engineer's Report, p57

Engineer's Report, p59

Engineer's Report, p61

I was surprised when I saw the rebuilt date of the railroad bridge was in the second half of the 20th Century. It is not unusual for bridges built in the beginning of the 20th Century to last 100 years. In fact, it would be unusual for one of those truss bridges to not last 100 years because the railroads generally maintain their bridges. But it is unusual for a bridge built in the 1800s to last almost 100 years because they were generally rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th Century when steam locomotives started getting a lot bigger after air brakes became common. (You don't need more horsepower for a train that is too heavy for the brakes to stop.) The bridges needed to be stronger not only to handle the increased weight but also the increased impact forces of a steam locomotive.

Street View

The comments on the following post explain why the Whipple trusses lasted so long. This was evidently just a branch BN/CB&Q route until the EPA sulfur regulations caused the Midwest power plants to switch from Illinois Basin coal to Powder River Valley Coal rather than install sulfur scrubbers. I think the 1970s was also when rotary dump high-walled gondola cars and unit trains were developed.

Samuel Brodersen posted
Another load of Powder River coal crosses the Missouri River into Missouri. The small town of Rulo, NE is seen in the background.
Vernon Lovelady
A lot of coal comes down that line. We use to have property at Big Lake about 4 miles from the river. Seen lots of trains threw there.

When I looked at the satellite images, I noticed that the bridges had approaches across a lot of land on both sides. These photos confirm that the approaches cross flood plains. In the following photo we see that the land is covered all the way to these storage units. This was the 2011 flood. I wonder how deep the water was here during the 2019 floods.

Ben Tate photo during flood of Oct 2012 via Bridge Hunter

some comments indicate that this reoad bridge shows up in the movie Paper Moon, a storm chasers episode on the Discovery Channel and something else that I now can't find.

Ben Tate photo via Bridge Hunter

Jason Smith photo via Bridge Hunter
[A comment indicates it was just 20' wide. I'll bet modern combines and tractors with dual tires had a rather tight fit on that bridge. But 20' is plenty wide for a trail. Did the Coast Guard force Nebraska to get rid of this bridge also? Some comments point out that knee bracings were removed to provide more clearance for trucks. That was an example of how these old truss bridges were over engineered.]

(new window)


The new bridge cost $25.7m and took three years to build. Part of that construction time was a work stoppage caused by the 2011 flood. [KMAland]

Street View

Traffic to this bridge was closed twice in 2019 because of flooding on US-159. [NewsChannelNebraska]

MoDOT photo (source)

I-90 Skyway Bridge over Calumet River in Chicago, IL

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; Official Link; 3D Satellite)

HAER ILL, 16-CHIG, 138--22 (CT)

LOOKING NORTH AT MAIN SPAN, FROM 100TH STREET BRIDGE - Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, I-90, for 7.8 miles from South State Street to Indiana state line, Chicago, Cook County, IL

Significance: The Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge system crosses the Calumet River on a 650'-0"-long cantilever Warren through truss. This is Chicago's highest and longest bridge, and perhaps more importantly, its symbolic eastern gateway. The Skyway's completion marked the final link in a system oftoll roads stretching from New York City to Chicago. This "toll bridge," however, also includes 7.8 miles of approach roads, which hint at an interesting legislative history. The Skyway's overpass and interchange structures contain specialty steel work such as welded rigid-frame bents and "hammer-head" piers, then relatively new designs. The toll plaza and service building, described in aseparate report, are also significant for their innovative design [HAER-data]

Chicago Event of the Day posted
April 1, 1954 – Mayor Martin Kennelly approves the plans for the construction of a $50 million extension of the Indiana turnpike into Chicago, a toll road that will require a high bridge over the Calumet River and seven miles of expressway.  The toll may be as high as 25 cents for passenger cars with higher fees for trucks, based on their size.  The construction will begin under a piece of 1953 Illinois legislation that allows cities to build and operate toll bridges.  Chicago officials state that the entire seven miles of the road will be considered as an approach to the bridge, a position that will be tested in the courts.  What came to be known as the Chicago Skyway was finished in 1958 at a cost of $101 million (a little over $900,000,000 in 2020 dollars).  In 2005 the city sold the Skyway for $1.83 billion to a joint venture between an Australian and a Spanish company.  That group, the Skyway Concession Company, then assumed operation and maintenance of the route.  A decade later the Skyway was sold again to three of Canada’s largest investment funds for $2.8 billion.
[According to a comment, the toll is now $5.25. I started getting off the expressway in Indiana and taking US-41 to I-55 or I-290 decades ago because the Skyway always seemed to be jammed up with construction.]
[This photo appears to be HAER ILL, 16-CHIG, 138--18]

Christopher Camalick shared
[According to a comment, the toll is now $5.30.]

 

Bill Bielby posted
High Bridge over Calumet River as seen from Amtrak Blue Water train from Port Huron to Chicago.

Vanished Chicago posted
CHICAGO – CALUMET EXPRESSWAY – AERIAL – NEARING COMPLETION – 1958
[Old enough that all five railroad bridges are intact, the gas-o-meter and Comed power plant are still standing and there are several freighters on the river. But the grain elevators north of the tracks are already gone.]

Mike Lenich posted
Skyway under construction where I grew up..,
Michael Siola shared

1 of 4 photos posted by Christine Douglas
Tug Laura L. VanEnkevort-Joseph H. Thompson sailed into the Port of Chicago heading to the Ozinga Terminal on the Calumet River. 21 Jul 2020.

Tony Margis posted

tony Margis posted
[I never noticed that the piers were in the river until I saw this photo. The "white towers" in the background are the exhaust pipes for the peaking plant.]

Construction photos
Rod Sellers Skyway is 125 feet above the river. Elevator lift bridges on the Calumet River are 120-125 feet above river when opened. ACE maps give specs.